An unlucky cashew tree was blasted in half last week when a 50-kilogram metal ball dropped from the sky over the Brazilian village of Riacho dos Poços. The ball left a crater one-meter deep after landing near Valdir José Mendes' house.

Mendes, who was home at the time and initially mistook the din for a plane crash or earthquake, escaped the fate of Andrei Krivorukov, whose Siberian home was demolished by plunging satellite detritus last December.

The Brazilian ball has since been collected by Brazilian military police. This space junk likely belonged to a satellite as well — unless the mysterious liquid Riacho dos Poços residents heard slushing around inside is of a much more sinister, extraterrestrial origin.